Mission Trip to Haiti

(September 15-22, 2008)

Introduction

I went with 11 others on a Medical Mission trip to Mountaintop Ministries in Haiti. Our host was the director of Mountaintop Willam Charles and his wife Beth, and we stayed in their home in Petionville, Haiti, which is located about 13 miles from the capitol of Port-au-Prince and ministered at a clinic in the village of Gramothe located in the mountains about 2 miles away. Willam is Haitian, his wife, Beth, is from Indiana, and they have two young sons, Stephen and Charles. They've built two schools, a church, and a clinic and host visiting missionary teams in their home 10 months out of the year. They have helped the village secure a clean water source which improved their health and increased the annual crops from one to four. Most people living around Gramothe now work as farmers or vendors and their children go to school. 

Haiti is located approximately 750 miles southeast of Florida and just to the east of Cuba. Haiti occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti has a land mass of 10,714 sq. miles. Haiti, an Indian word meaning "mountains," is made up of extremely mountainous country and only 20 percent of the territory lies below 600 feet. The highest mountain in Haiti (Chain de la Sel) is almost 9,000 feet above sea level.

The climate in Haiti is tropical with average temperatures ranging from 80 degrees in January to 86 degrees in July. There are also two rainy seasons. The first runs from April to June and the second between October and November. Like in all Caribbean countries, hurricanes are common.

Haiti's ecology has been significantly damaged since its independence in 1804. Only 7% of the country's original forest remains unscathed by deforestation. Most of the trees have been cut down and used as firewood for heating and cooking. Some wood has been sold to surrounding island nations to provide much needed income. Massive soil erosion has also occurred due to the vast amount of deforestation. Thus, much of the soil in Haiti has been depleted of vital minerals. 

Most of the water in Haiti is also polluted. This includes parts of the coastal areas, such as the Bay of Port-au-Prince, and most of the major ports and some coastal towns. The water throughout the country is nonpotable.

The official languages are French, although it is spoken only by 10% of the population, and a Haitian Creole, the national language derived from French and African.

Over 75% of the population 25 or over have had no formal schooling, and only 53% of the population aged 15 or over are literate. 

The official currency is the Gourde (G) divided into 100 Centimes.

Monday

The group was organized by a doctor who was making her 18th trip to the clinic and consisted of her, a nurse practitioner, a nurse, a retired army medic who is a doctor, a pharmacist, a minister, a youth director at a local church, four individuals with no medical training, and the 12-year-old daughter of the doctor. People at my church donated $305 toward the purchase of prescription medicines and over the counter medicines. The doctor took five 50-pound suitcases full of prescription medicines and I took one 50-pound suitcase full of over the counter medicine--vitamins, antifungal cream, dandruff shampoo, hydrocortizone cream, generic tylenol, generic ibuprofen, artificial tears, and two battery powered lights as the clinic has no electricity. Some of the other people also took over the counter supplies. 

We flew on American Airlines and left Indianapolis at 7:05 am on Monday, September 15, and arrived in Port au Price around 4 pm the same day. It started raining soon after we landed. Willam met us at the baggage pickup and loaded our bags onto carts that were pushed by several men, and we just walked through customs with 20 checked bags and all our carry ons--they didn't check anything. When we got outside it was raining hard and at one point we had to walk through about 6 inches of water. The bags were loaded onto an open truck and the women got inside a van, but the men rode in the back of the truck and they and our luggage got very wet. We drove about 13 miles to Petionville, which is where Willam, Beth and their 2 sons, Stephen and Charles, live. The mountains were cooler and much less congested than the city. We stayed in Willam and Beth's home--a bright, airy two-story house. Our meals were cooked for us and were delicious. The only "roughing it" to be done entailed sharing two bathrooms among 12 people. 

Monday evening we had a delicious dinner, unpacked our wet bags and spread everything out to dry, then went to bed. Six women are in one room upstairs that has 4 sets of bunk beds. Four men are in a smaller room downstairs that has 3 sets of bunk beds and the one married couple are in an area that been divided off from a recreation room.

Haiti and the surrounding countries - view 1

pictures of Haiti

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Haiti and the surrounding countries - view 2

Haiti and its major cities

(Gramothe is located between Petionville and Kenscoff)

view of clouds from the plane

airplane after landing at Port au Prince airport

sign welcoming us to Port au Prince

picture on the wall of the airport

view of Willam & Beth's home

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we drove 2 miles to the clinic over terrible roads in three 4 wheeled vehicles and a truck carrying the bags containing the medical supplies we brought. I rode in the truck beside the driver and some of the men on the mission plus some of the Haitian translators rode in the back of the truck. We unloaded the supplies and put most of them away before the 4 medical stations started seeing patients—one station was staffed by the doctor, one by the nurse practicioner, one by the RN, and one by the retired army medic. All the stations were supervised by the doctor and they had a conference whenever there was a problem. On Tuesday they saw 98 patients. I and Kenzie took turns taking blood pressures, giving scabies treatments to several babies, children, and 2 women, and counting pills and placing them in small bags so the pharmacist would have them ready to fill prescriptions written by the doctors. We ate lunch in the school cafeteria every day and could have the same rice with some vegetables and beans in it that was served to the students if we wanted it. I like rice, and it looked good, but I just ate the snacks that I had prepared. The school has about 500 students in grades 1-10 and is next door to the church. We quit a little early on Tuesday as a bad storm was coming in and we had to get down the mountain so 40 patients were given numbers that would let them be first on Wednesday.

Jason & Dr. Marcia starting on the trip up the mountain on a 4-wheeler 

view of the first section of the road 

 looking back at our truck as we approached the river crossing - the first truck was already there and people were working on the entrance point into the river

our first view of the church steeple

the church at Gramothe

the clinic at Gramothe

Tom running up to get another suitcase and several of the Haitians waiting to enter the clinic

looking back at Petionville from the clinic

looking at the graveyard and the other side of the mountain

a farmer working in his field

the clinic and school playground

Willam eating his lunch

Dr. Marcia

Cyndi & Tracy

boys playing outside the school lunchroom

one of the patients

a growth on a woman's arm that can be removed by the surgeons in October if the woman comes back

a big storm was coming so we headed down the mountain early - here 2 of the 4 wheelers are approaching the river

dinner--rice, turkey, green beans & carrots, baked macaroni, fresh fruit

Chuck, Stephen, & Jason

(Stephen is the oldest son of Willam & Beth)

Wednesday

When we get up we can see the church and clinic from the balcony of Willam and Beth’s home and can see the people waiting at the clinic to see a doctor.  This morning when we started to leave we found the road was blocked by a truck that had slipped off the road and was stuck. They weren't having much luck in getting it unstuck, but they did finally get it parallel to the road, and we were able to slip by on the five 4-wheelers we were using today. When we arrive at the clinic the first thing we do each day is get everything organized then Willam speaks to the assembled people in Creole giving them a short Christian message. Then he asks one of us to pray and he translates. The people are then lined up and given numbers which will determine the order in which they will see a doctor. There are 7 Haitians who work in the clinic with us every day. One works at the in-take window pulling charts and directing the people inside when it is their turn. One works at each medical station and translates for the doctor. One weighs each patient and records the weight on their chart. One is stationed in the pharmacy and translates for the pharmacist. There is a long bench in the small room just inside the door and the person who weighs the patients calls them in to the main room one at a time. She weighs them and then all adults proceed to the blood pressure station where either I or Kenzie use an automatic cuff to obtain their blood pressure and pulse. Then they sit down on a long bench inside this room and are called one by one by the Haitian translators to go behind the dividing curtains and see one of the doctors. On Wednesday the staff saw 116 patients, and the army medic performed minor surgery to remove a large lipoma from just below a man’s ear.

Chuck and Jason work at two of the medical stations writing prescriptions and praying with the patients. Barry and Caitlin usually work in the pharmacy helping Paul, the pharmacist. Kenzie and I share the blood pressure, scabies treatment, and counting pills in advance duties. Sally helps as needed with these duties and also spends a lot of time organizing the medicines in the store room. When we arrived the store room was a big mess and no one knew what was in there. I also worked in there some.  

view of Willam's new home and the mountains

view of the church, school, & clinic

Willam talking to the patients before the prayer

Dossier Generale - the chart that is kept on each patient

the road is blocked by a truck

we are waiting for the road to open up

view of the river from a window of the clinic

growths on 2 separate patients - they were told to return in October when the surgeons are at the clinic to have them removed

a vendor outside the clinic

Caitlin is sleeping in one of the bunk beds

taking a shower was a little different due to the limited water - it was explained to us and the sign also explain it

also to save water we didn't put the paper in the toilet and didn't flush each time

Thursday

Barry organized devotions for 7 o'clock this morning, and we will continue to have devotions at 7 each morning. Stephen, Willam and Beth's oldest son, is 12 years old and was given the day off from school to work in the clinic as a translator. I borrowed him a few times so I could talk to the mothers when I was giving scabies treatments to the babies or to the mothers themselves.

Willam brought us 2 boxes of tracts that we could hand out to the patients and I placed supplies of each tract at each medical station. We saw 122 patients on Thursday.

morning devotions

breakfast (yum! yum!)

river we had to cross each day

Haitians carry loads on their heads instead of in their arms

Paul in the Pharmacy

patients waiting outside the pharmacy for their medicine

Willam, Micka, & several of us at lunch

6 of the Haitian workers at lunch (the names of 4 who worked with the doctors are Gerdi, Gutch, Robert, & Gherline)

cemetery below the church

these workers are installing a boys and girls bathroom for the school

vendors at the clinic

children waiting to see one of the doctors

our dinner

Jason, Stephen, & Tracy

Marcia & Chuck

Kenzie & Cyndi

the cook & house worker

Friday

The local schools had a scheduled parent/teacher conference day so Stephen and David both came up to the clinic and two high school students--Bianca & Eilias--also came to the clinic to work. In Haiti every high school student must work 30 hours a year for the community.

Tom performed another surgery—this time removing a growth from a man’s hand—and Tracy had a VERY ill patient that all the doctors consulted on.

The people waiting outside got very rowdy at one point and Willam took the clinic sheets away from those who were inside waiting to see a doctor and made them go back outside and he broke up the line. He then spoke to everyone before letting them reform the line then he called the names of the patients that had been inside and let them come back inside and retrieve their clinic sheet. I learned later that a patient had fallen off the wall once when they got rowdy so it is very important that the crowd remain orderly.

pictures of children attending the clinic

pictures of Marcia, Cyndi, Tom, and Tracy attending a patient at his/her medical station

2 more pictures of Marcia at her station showing Bianca working as a translator

Micka, the translator, at the pharmacy window

patients at the pharmacy window & in line to come inside the clinic

children playing

man who received a trekking pole for a cane

child using a bucket as a drum

vendors outside the clinic

scenes from the surgery performed by Tom

Saturday

The doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse, pharmacist, and one of the ministers took Bionca as a translator and made a house call on the ill girl from Friday then went to the clinic to complete an inventory and clean up.

Three vendors came to the house and set their wares up inside the gate and we could purchase items with US dollars, but you had to bargain to get a good price.

Sally, Barry, and Willam left to help a woman who runs a local orphanage purchase a car.

Kenzie, Tom, Chuck, and I stayed in the house and relaxed. In the afternoon Willam took everyone up to walk through the village and introduced us to several of the Haitians.

another view of the mountains & the church

a beautiful flowering tree

another view of the river

3 vendors came to the house & displayed their wares

children playing basketball

school playground

2 views of a mural on the wall of the elementary school

farm fields

we are climbing up the hill behind the church for a walk through the village

 another beautiful flowering tree

the matriarch of the village is showing us her kitchen

the church steeple can be seen from the village

husband of the matriarch

another view of the matriarch

Micka and her father

a banana tree

a man with his 5 daughters & a neighbor's child - his one son was on the roof

2 homes and a couple of pigs

a woman standing outside her home

a bunch of leeks ready to go to market

a voodoo site that has been abandoned

dinner

Sunday

Sunday morning we learned that the girl who was brought to the clinic so ill on Friday had died during the night. Marcia was very upset, but there was nothing she could do without a laboratory to run some needed tests. The girl needed a hospital. 

We all went to the Gramothe church . Each Sunday School class stood up and recited Bible verses from memory, some songs were sung, a choir performed then Barry spoke for a short time, Chuck gave a short sermon from Chapter 3 of I Corinthians, and Jason gave a short sermon from the same chapter. Willam translated all of these presentations. After the church service we all watched as rice was distributed to local families. 

We then went back to Willam and Beth's home, had a mid afternoon meal, then visited a small orphanage. Afterwards we packed as we would be leaving at 8 o’clock Monday morning.

the church from the street in front of Willam's house

looking down the road

2 woman carrying buckets of water on their head

most of us rode in the bed of the pickup to church on Sunday

2 young ladies outside the church

Dr. Marcia and one of the deacons

Micka and her mother

pictures of the church

the choir that performed

pictures of the worshippers

Willam and Barry, Chuck, and Jason

Jason with a little girl

church members carrying in the bags of rice to be distributed

the rice had been imported from the US

Willam explained who donated the rice and how the distribution would be done

people lined up to receive their family's share of the distribution

more bags were continuously brought out and opened up

these 2 girls were too young to understand what was going on

these children are siblings of the girl who died and their mother sent them to get the family's distribution

they were placed at the head of the line at that point and received a distribution of rice

this man gathered the sweepings and put them in his bag

a young boy is carrying back jugs of water from the community faucet located near the church

we are walking up the road to pay our respects to the family of the girl who died

this is the 17-year-old girl who died

she will be buried in one of these vaults inside a wooden casket on Monday and after about one year what is left will be taken out and spread over the mountain

Sally & Jason holding a child from the orphanage

Caitlin

Willam & Kenzie holding children

this child received a package from the couple in the US who are adopting her & she instantly tried on the dress

Caitlin, Stephen, and David with children on their back

a young child

Tracy with a child who is having some developmental problems and Marcia & Beth are going to find some help for him

one of the children running through the playground

Barry & a child

this piece of furniture shows some of the clothes of the children

Tracy is packing

Monday

We left about 8 o'clock for the airport as we had an 11 am flight from Port-au-Prince to Fort Lauderdale. We went in a truck and a van, and the trip took about an hour even though it was only 13 miles. At the airport Willam took the checked luggage and our passports and went through customs and then got our luggage checked in and picked up our tickets. In Fort Lauderdale we had to wait in a long line to go through US Customs. There were no problems, but they did pick Jason for one of the random searches. Then we had to take all our luggage to a different terminal and check in with America Airlines again. Here we found out that some of us were flying to Dallas/Ft. Worth then Indianapolis while others were flying to Chicago then Indianapolis and the luggage had been tagged incorrectly. The different routes were the result of purchasing the tickets at two separate times. We got the luggage sorted out and checked in correctly then separated as the two groups went to two different gates. We had no problem with any of the flights and arrived in Indianapolis about 11 pm. Five of us had traveled with Marcia from Chicago and Debbie met us at the airport to take Chuck and Jason back to Terre Haute and Marcia took Tom, me, and of course her daughter Caitlin back to Terre Haute. It was a long day, but it helped to have friends to travel with and talk to. 

We had a great breakfast and dinner every day. Breakfast was usually oatmeal or cream of wheat, pancakes or French toast, fresh fruit, and freshly squeezed juice and coffee. Dinner consisted of rice that usually included either beans or some small vegetables, meat (beef twice, turkey once, chicken twice, and a beef and corn bread casserole once), either potatoes or baked macaroni, green beans with carrots or corn, fruit, and cool aid or water to drink.  

Riding 2 miles up and down the mountain and across a river on the back of a 4 wheeler is quite an experience. When the truck didn't go it required five 4 wheelers to transport all of us--fortunately we had 5 people who could drive the vehicles on the very challenging road. I didn’t like going UP on the 4 wheeler as the road was very steep and I had a tendency to lean backward which was hard on my arms; however, riding in the truck on those roads wasn’t easy either. The first time I came down the mountain in the truck I thought I was going to suffer whiplash as my neck was hurting quite a bit, but it recovered quickly once I was down. It was much better on Sunday when Willam drove us up the mountain in the Ford Ram truck.  I definitely want to return to Mountain Top Ministries and have told Marcia that I am willing to go whenever she can use me.

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